nice end. i'm told you are a man who can help me? sometime in mid 19th century, 1850s, my great great, great grandfather, emigrated to south america. was reported to die here. but might have been a seeker of utopian dreams. my aunt told stories.

he was into arms struggling, but who knows. no idea. ♪ i took a walk through this beautiful world ♪ ♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good in this beautiful world ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, la, la ♪

for most people, paraguay is an empty space on a map of latin america. ♪ a country of only 6 million, where a vast percentage of the land is steaming hot jungle or a huge scrub desert known simply as the chaco. only a few large cities offer a respite from the oppressive heat. ♪ [ singing in foreign language ] >> 1,000 miles upriver from the

atlantic ocean sits paraguay's remote capital city. known largely for being a post-war refuge for fleeing nazis and a long line of extremely unpleasant dictators, this place,of all the places in the world,is where my great, great, great-grandfather disappeared without explanation sometime in the 1850s. i'm told you are a man who can help me. how do you do? >> you are for the first time in the country? >> first time in paraguay, yes. >> lido-bar, has always been like central switchboard, a gathering place. ladies in orange vests cook and serve old-school, working class

food to people from all walks of life. >> this place is very unique. i've been here for more than 50 years. >> all right. let's get something to eat. i'm hungry. >> big envelopes of dough, beef, onion, hard cooked egg, deep fried to perfection. cattle is the big business of this country, it used to be cattle and smuggling. these days it's still cattle and some smuggling. you see a lot of beef is what i'm saying. mm, oh, that's good. this country is a mystery to most people. what little we know of the country generally comes from nazis and germans hiding in paraguay for war crimes. do you think that's an undeserved reputation? >> i don't think that's fair. it's a beautiful country. >> pedro is a private investigator. one of a team of people i sent out looking for the mysterious

lost bourdain. >> what types of investigations are you called upon to do? >> normally counterfeiting. >> this is sort of the counterfeiting capital of the world. in the old days it was said that much of this counterfeiting had partners in the government. not so much anymore? >> i rather don't answer that. i'm no politician. and i live here, so -- general alfredo stroessner was the last of his kind in paraguy. he ruled with a quiet bavarian charm. behind the scenes was another thing. utilizing an outfit of ss trained footed police, referred to as the hairy footed ones, he tortured dissidents out of helicopters over the jungle, and the list goes on. under stroessner, one in four paraguayans are said to have participated as informants on their fellow citizens.

>> quite a history, violent. >> things are changing a lot. and now things are getting straight. >> sometime in mid 19th century, 1850s, my grandfather emigrated to south america, first in argentina but apparently came here. that's really almost all i know for sure. did he die by the sword? did he die of old age? did he die of syphilis? i have no idea. i'd like to know. i'd love to find a grave site. that would be great. my father died at 57. his father in, i think, in his 20s, i believe. i'll be 58 in june. i think i'm the longest-living male bourdain in possibly ever. >> so you're lonely in the world? >> i am lonely in the world, yes.

if i could solve the mystery of the elusive grandfather, it would make me very happy. by the way, it would be terrific if you found out he owned a huge ranch in the chaco and they're waiting for his relatives to claim his property. [ laughter ] maybe not. i'm trying to make some sense of this country. you've lived here how long? >> i'm since 22 years, too long maybe. what a strange and nice country. >> go to paraguay, find a german to show you around. not so crazy or unrepresentative. people came to this country from everywhere, to as, emerson called it, make their own world. >> i'm tony. >> nice to meet you. >> so what's good to eat here? >> i suppose you want something paraguayan? >> yes.

>> beef, a roast rice with fried beef with egg on top. >> i'm there. good. >> and there is a soup whose name is bori-bori. that's very, very old paraguayan stuff. little corn balls. >> that looks good. that looks very good. >> yeah. >> it's good, man. i'm trying to make some sense of this country. you've lived here how long? >> 22 years. >> why did you come here in the first place? >> i was born in east germany, and east germany means you will never go out. then in '89, the wall break down. and say wow, you will go! >> i haven't seen anything of this country yet, but what i read was the world's backwater filled with bombed-out banks that had been looted.

institutions that didn't work. everyone carried a gun. it was like the wild west but poorer. it's not like that any more? >> a bit of this is true. i myself got a .45 on my head last week. that's really common for me. >> seldom in the history of the world where you have one after another the most maniacal, insa insane, suicidal group of dictators century after century. >> you are right. even in stressful times, the better part of paraguayans was behind it. paraguayans are very, very easy to influence. and this is, i believe, unchanged until a short time ago. now there is a growing middle class, better education than before, and that makes the people say no. >> how was the soup?

>> i liked it, yes. was the way my wife cooks it. i like it better with chicken. but chicken is more for saturday. simply type in a name and you're taken on a journey. a journey that crosses generations. and continents. all to tell the most amazing story. yours. discover your story. start searching for free now at ancestry.com

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paraguay was a very poor country. the spaniards came because there was a lot of silver in the area. they found nothing, so they lost interest in paraguay. >> this is the only country in latin america where the indigenous language is the official language.

>> they told me automatically, i'm married to a paraguayan woman and when the fathers come in, they automatically talk in the language, and i'm more or less out. >> a proud society. >> yes. >> el supremo. el supremeo, you've got to love it. >> he declared himself el supremo for life. de franceive a insisted they become a mixed-race society. neither spanish or indians. we are mestizos. and el supremo, they prohibit marriage between whites. he produced the mestizos by force.

>> today 95% of paraguayans are of mixed blood. >> and we usually speak two languages. >> right. >> the central market? >> the biggest one. the most popular one. ♪ >> i'm hungry. >> what's good here? >> we opted for the little fish. it's a catfish. and, okay. the saying is that it makes man very powerful. >> ah. >> what's he got over there. that looks good. >> stew. there was a good italian influence in paraguay, so maybe

this stew comes from this side. cologne is from all over the world. >> so you invite them, give them the catfish soup. [ laughter ] >> mario, could you pass me the paraguayan soup. >> soup. >> it's very unique. >> our dictator lopez, his favorite soup was corn soup. and one day he ordered his favorite soup and the cook, when he opened the pot, ah, it was a cake. >> paraguay has not been noted for its history of kinder, gentler leaders. in 1800s, two generations of lopez, father and son, one dictator after another, certainly left their marks on this country. >> lopez was known for putting a wrong stamp on the letter you get shot. the cook didn't want to get

shot. he showed up in front of lopez and said this is paraguayan soup. and the dictator ate it and liked it. and a bit later, the entire country eat it. >> so cheesy cornbread. >> yes. >> awesome. good meal. >> so this was the house or one of the houses of the notorious madam lynch? >> right, exactly. >> journalist, poet and author giedo rodriguez has written books on paraguay's history. >> who now who exactly was madam lynch? a murky background, would you say? >> somebody say a bright woman, or she was an evil one. >> she came over on the famous trip from france? >> right.

>> seceding to france, he reversed many of paraguay's isolationist policies. he invited to stay here. he built one of south america's first railways. its steam engines taken out of service only a few years ago. and he said his son, francisco solano lopez, to europe. >> his mission, his father sent him out to get, what, arms? >> arms and technicians. engineers. and machinery. >> junior, by most contemporary accounts, was an idiot. >> so he came back with a mistress, madam lynch. >> yes. >> which dad wasn't too happy about. >> right. ♪ >> he was very traditional, and wanted his son to marry a paraguayan woman and do

everything by the book. >> right. >> paraguay's soon to be first mistress, madam eliza lynch was the already married daughter of an irish doctor. ambitious, social climbing, fond of nice things. >> close imported from france. they say she brought paraguay's first piano. and there were parties here. >> he showed madam lynch to his father, and his father was upset. so she was put aside. >> and kept as a mistress? >> and that was the way paraguayan society tried to treat her, and she wanted to be treated as the princess. >> yes. >> tell me about madam lynch's famous boat trip.

on one of her more notorious ventures as hostess, she organized a grand outing to the new french colony at nouveau bordea bordeaux, french colony. she wanted all of society to join her? >> right. >> magnificent steamer was engaged for the party. >> there were ladies and madam lynch. >> once on board, as the story goes, those mean bitches treated their hostess like so much trash. >> so she got upset and threw off board all of the food that they were supposed to eat. >> she had it all thrown in the river? >> yes. [ laughter ] >> then she ordered the captain to stop the boat and let her guests just sit there in that jungle heat for hours. >> throwing tubs of caviar, whole roasted pigs into the river in front of these starving aristocrats, somehow that

pleases me.

going back to the very beginning, various groups with stars in their eyes came here seeking to create a utopia along ideological lines.

a mennonite paradise, repopulation north america with aryan germans, british, italians, everybody. >> yes, it started with jesuit colonies. >> the new bordeaux. i had a great, great, great grandfather come over to paraguay around the 1850s. >> right. >> might have been, himself, a seeker of some kind of utopian dreams. >> are they originally from france? >> from france, yes. >> what city, do you know? >> my great, great, great-grandfather was from near bordeaux. so i'm curious about this whole episode about the settlement of nouveau bordeaux.

♪ >> the paraguay river, still as it was 150 years ago, the country's main artery, a thoroughfare for transporting people and goods. ♪ >> so who lives out there? >> all the people we see fishing out on the river banks, are they fishing for dinner? >> most of them are fishing for dinner. call them poor people, but what is poor? they decide for themselves to live here. they could go and start working on a construction place tomorrow. >> he has organized a trip upriver to see new bordeaux,

what was hoped to be a new france in the chaco. >> fish we bought today, 14 kilo. >> right. >> that's half a month's salary, and you get with bit of good luck in one night. >> right. ♪ ♪ >> outside of the cities, paraguay is sparsely populated. indigenous groups, a few settled europeans, mennonites, germans, and every so often, a fishing lure and shotgun salesman. what are the shotguns for?

bandits? varmints? >> to hunt deer and water pig, capybara. >> that's a peacemaker. any rope nazis we could shoot now? >> i am tempted by the offer of a cheap shotgun for sale, but it figures peter would know this guy. but reason wins out. >> i don't think we're going to buy a shotgun today. me, beer, shotgun, hot sunny day, a producer? that's not a good mix. ♪ >> unlike madam lynch's guests, i'm making damn sure i'm eating on this boat trip. ah, the most important part of any meal, cold, frosty beverages. >> you already had one. >> i started early.

here. cheers. oh, here we go. thank you. little fish in a mango salsa. >> you have the two most appreciated fish on the table here of paraguay. that's the catfish. that's the dorado. >> oh, dorado, of course, that's tasty. that's nice. so i'm curious about this whole episode of the settlement of new bordeaux. >> it came about 400 people. they were supposed to be about 1,000. they were supposed to be most of them farmers. but just 86 were farmers. >> who were the other people? >> they were tailors,

shoemakers, musicians. teachers and artists, and they were put in the jungle and left by themselves. >> why here of all the places in the world? people talk about the chaco as hell. i mean, it's hot here. it's dry. it's wet. it's fetid. if's difficult. >> mosquitoes. and you have all the ticks and vermin. >> a flatland of cactus and thorns and misery and cannibals. >> there were the indians coming down the river and killing everybody. there was the langua who if you entered the country, you are good food. >> did the paraguayans ever see this as a utopia? >> no. >> i'm sure not. >> what we have is nouveau

bordeaux. >> that? >> this. >> wow. that's kind of not how i pictured it. doesn't look like bordeaux to me. ♪ >> there's nothing much left of nouveau bordeaux. i'm told a small museum of artifacts. the site where the colony once briefly existed is now called something else. >> the money for its settler. >> perhaps there was a communication breakdown somewhere, and he might have told the paraguayans, i'm bringing the finest farmers france has to offer and he might have told these french men, you'll get free property, you don't have to do anything, reach up into the trees and fruit and gold bars are dropping. [ dogs barking ]

>> in fact, there was thrown out in the cold and say here you are. that's your land. go ahead. >> these poor french guys show up. >> right. >> lopez senior, and the government kept their side of the bargain. >> yes. >> they provided them with houses, equipment. >> tools and animals and everything. >> my aunt used to have one of these, made pressed sandwiches i think. okay, that's it. dig, grow. the settlers quickly found out it was hard work and resembled in no way the france of their dreams. >> they got broke, and they decide to leave the colony. >> how many french were left at

the end of the new bordeaux experiment? did any stay? >> some of them, but few. >> all right. any thoughts or hopes that my great, great, great-grandfather ended his life here leaving me a vast, unclaimed stake in what is now prime cattle country turns quickly to dust. ♪

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so you guys have some information perhaps on my elusive great, great, great-grandfather? >> mm-hm? >> yeah. i don't know what he did here. i'm hoping for something extremely glamorous, a river pirate, gun runner, drug

smuggler, maybe he died in the saddle. maybe he died happy. maybe he lived out in the bush, surrounded by adoring indigenous women. i don't know. maybe he was an masseur for madam lynch. i guess i would be let down. >> i contacted with other historians and geniologists around the world and the history of your family is very interesting.

there was money to be made. ah, i'm bummed. >> after this episode with the new bordeaux group came a triple alliance. >> he died in 1858. >> yes. >> it was a good time to die, this way he didn't have to join this horrible war. >> he missed the war? >> yes. the old lopez died. the young lopez got in power. >> our man becomes president? >> yes, francisco lopez. >> absolutely the most maniacal, megalomaniacal.

dictator. >> you're right. >> he was rather unkind to his siblings. >> his two brothers were tortured and killed. his sisters were jailed in tiger cages. >> tiger cages. >> and their mother was given some beating, 60 something. >> the 60 year old mother was flogged and beaten in front of them. not a nice man. >> it was believed he had a chance to be married with the daughter of the emperor of brazil. >> he was refused in very unflattering terms. thanks presumably to lopez junior's expansionist ambitions, he dragged paraguay into triple alliance war. >> he challenged all three neighbors. >> brazil, argentina and uruguay -- >> to war. this doesn't seem like a good idea. >> yeah.

>> in what would become the bloodiest war in latin america's history, hundreds of thousands of paraguayans died. when lopez ran out of adults, he sent children into the field dressed only in rags, armed with sticks painted to look like guns. >> my great grandfather was a 10-year-old boy, and he was dressed like a girl. because otherwise, he was going to be enrolled in the army. >> lopez was hunted down, but madam lynch survived? >> yes, she survived. >> with her money? she was allowed to keep her possessions? >> yes. >> in history, it's hard to find a more disastrous or more cruel or pointless campaign, it would seem. >> when all was said and done, as much as 60% of the population and 90% of the men of this

country were dead. >> survivors were just like 50 or 40,000 people. so that's why you could easily understand why there was nothing here for 100 years. >> he dies here. ♪ ♪ >> john bourdain dies here. >> yes. before the alliance war. >> an adult natural of france by the name of juan bourdain. >> cause of death? >> not specified here.

>> is there a grave site? >> we are looking. >> we are looking for. ♪ ♪ >>it's not even wednesday. let it go, phil. if you're a camel, you put up with this all the time. it's what you do. (sigh) if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. ok...

♪ ♪

so i'm hungry. i'm really hungry. >> you know you want it. it's late, you've had a few. now you've had a lot. you want something greasy, savory, juicy, and nasty. >> this is it. the legendary lovito. >> that's right. that's what the people eat in the streets. >> an egg, a little runny, please. some kind of meat like beef patty thing. throw on your lettuce and tomato. two sauces, i don't know what they are. soy sauce, too. egg on top of cheese on top of meat. now get in my stomach now! mm. sandwich is awesome. >> awesome good? >> good awesome. all my greasy meat dreams have come true. that's good.

and at the last minute, the last thing i give a steaming loaf about anymore is my long-dead relatives. i mean, i'm over it. here comes news of the big breakthrough. >> i talked with the historian, and he said it looks like your great-grandfather, what he was merchandising, it was definitely not hats. >> really? >> we have here jean bourdain. and what is he bringing? 200 boxes of fireworks. >> fireworks? >> fireworks. >> like firecrackers? >> there is not even more than 200 or 300 wealthy families who sometimes in the birthday would crack a little bit. >> uh-huh. so are you suggesting something untoward? >> weapons. >> weapons. >> yeah. >> he was a merchant of death? awesome.

my aunt always said he was a gun runner. we figured she was full of shit. she also said she was in the resistance, but everybody in france said that. arms. so was he ever a hat maker? was this a cover job? was he a hat maker/arms? are all these historians on the money here? was great, great, great grampy an arms dealer? so what hatmaker needs 200 pounds of gun powder. i've got you now jean bourdain. i've got you now. or was he simply a party supplier, selling little firecrackers and party hats to school kids? i don't know what to believe. >> and in 1858, unfortunately, he died. >> right. >> and he was buried here, two miles from here. the rich people's cemetery.

>> yeah. >> we can pretty well say on which area. he remains. he is there. >> wow. well, i guess we'll have to go look, huh? >> definitely, yeah. [ male announcer ] this is the cat that drank the milk... [ meows ]

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[ rainfall ] ♪ sorry, little buddy, there's no escaping, paraguay loves their beef. perfect ratio, little bit of beef, little bit of vegetables. this is a sprawling ranch bigger than some of the countries i've traveled to, and it's been in the family going all the way back to the triple alliance war. hard life? good life? >> we are pretty happy here. we have everything. >> 20 years ago, the chaco was

not huge. and the last years it's booming. >> where is the boom come from? >> we are the second biggest soybean exporter, cattle exporter, we feed the world for eight days a year. >> how many acres? >> 100,000 hectares. >> barbecue has to be included. >> if you have sausages. >> could eat this all day, and i will. >> barbecue, you are complete. [ laughter ] ♪

♪ >> mm. that's awesome. so were there a lot of vegetarians in this part of paraguay? [ laughter ] >> here comes the highlight. >> look at that. pretty. beef short ribs are amazing. mm. so good. ♪ >> all of the books i read about paraguay are maybe 15 years old, and like the first says everybody has a gun, buy a gun. [ laughter ] [ speaking in foreign language ] >> this was not the paraguay i expected. at all.

>> please, we want to sing a song for you. >> a welcome song to the foreign people. >> yeah. ♪ [ singing in foreign language ] >> it not says welcome stranger. it says, welcome, brother stranger. ♪ >> the jean bourdain who died here was my great, great, great-grandfather. >> yes. >> this old cemetery. recoletta.

>> it seems most likely that he was buried there. ♪ nobody i know. >> it's very, very likely that the tomb was just oval with something on top. >> yeah. ♪ [ singing in foreign language ]

7 -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com this is a good place to both experience fantasy and reality. ♪ >> the air, explosives and food? you can't beat that. ♪ >> muy gracias. see, you just stand here in the street and random strangers bring you delicious foods.